The present invention relates to oil field equipment, and more particularly to an oil burner for testing operations for oil wells. It is a conventional practice in the oil field industry to burn a discrete amount of oil in order to test the quality of oil before starting full production operations. Various governmental laws prescribe the requirements for well test burners which would minimize the ecological dangers, while the oil is consumed.
To that end, a number of devices have been designed and used for the purpose of testing the well through burning of a discrete amount of oil, one of the patented devices being U.S. Pat. No. 3,811,820 issued on May 21, 1974. In U.S. Pat. No. '820 the burner required that an internal valve in the form of a lance be positioned within a hollow cylindrical body to regulate and vary the discharge of oil and air mist through the open end of the body, the mist being ignited by an external ignition source to form a smokeless flame.
While this device functioned successfully for many years, the most recent tests have shown that it is possible to regulate the amount of discharged oil and air mist without the internal valve, by regulating the flow of oil and air from their respective manifolds.
The present invention contemplates provision of an improved well test burner which is easy to operate and less expensive to manufacture.